Neil Burger Tapped to Direct Episodes of Prime Video Drama ‘Motorheads’ (Exclusive)

Neil Burger, who last directed Daisy Ridley in the gritty thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter, is jumping into series work with Motorheads, a soapy auto-themed drama for Prime Video.

Burger is helming the kickoff episode, currently shooting, as well as the second. He will also serve as exec producer.

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Motorheads stars Ryan Phillippe as a former NASCAR mechanic who now runs his own auto body shop in a Rustbelt town in Pennsylvania. He faces financial insecurity while also living in the shadow of an infamous brother, but becomes the linchpin of a group of multigenerational outsiders who form an unlikely friendship over their love of cars.

Nathalie Kelley (The Baker and the Beauty), Michael Cimino (Never Have I Ever) and Melissa Collazo (One of Us Is Lying) are also on the call sheet.

The series is written and executive produced by John A. Norris, who serves as showrunner. It is also executive produced by Jason Seagraves, Ruben Fleischer (who was originally slated to direct the first episode) and Jake Fuller.

Ryan Zaragoza will serve as co-executive producer and producing director. The series is produced by Jax Media and Amazon MGM Studios.

Burger is known for his movie work, which includes the well-regarded magician drama The Illusionist, starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti, and Divergent, part of the film series adapting the best-selling books by Veronica Roth and starring Shailene Woodley. And of course, there was Limitless, the hit Relativity Media thriller starring Bradley Cooper that begat a short-lived CBS TV series.

This isn’t the first brush with episodic work for Burger, who next has the Phoebe Dynevor-starring spy thriller Inheritance coming from IFC. He previously directed installments of the Showtime drama Billions, including the pilot and final episode. He was also an exec producer on the series.

He is repped by CAA and manager Jay Baker of Nomad Story.

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